Near the close of the Civil War, as General Sherman blazed his path to the sea, an unknown infantryman rifled through the North Carolina state house.The soldier was hunting for simple Confederate mementos—maps, flags, official correspondence—but he wound up discovering something far more valuable. He headed home to Ohio with one of the touchstones of our republic: one of the fourteen original copies of the Bill of Rights.
Lost Rightsfollows that document’s singular passage over the course of 138 years, beginning with the Indiana businessman who purchased the looted parchment for five dollars, then wending its way through the exclusive and shadowy world of high-end antiquities—a world populated by obsessive archivists, oddball collectors, forgers, and thieves— and ending dramatically with the FBI sting that brought the parchment back into the hands of the government.
For fans ofThe Billionaire’s VinegarandThe Lost Painting,Lost Rightsis “a tour de force of antiquarian sleuthing” (Hampton Sides).
A thrilling blend of history and detective story, LOST RIGHTS takes us inside the world of historical documents—a world of obsessives, con men, archivists, and thieves—through the incredible story of an original copy of the Bill of Rights, stolen from the North Carolina statehouse during the Civil War and recovered more than 130 years later in an elaborate FBI sting.
“David Howard’sLost Rightsis an epic ride through American history, a colorful page-turner in which the hero is a 220-year-old piece of parchment coveted by an eccentric cast of fast-talking antiquarians and innocent patriots, nerdy record-keepers and special agents in a cinematic showdown. Howard goes deep, creating an astounding narrative weave that captures not just the strange journey of the Bill of Rights, but the modern-day country of hucksters anló@
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